Ontario was the first province to test out autonomous cars on its roads, launching a 10-year pilot project at the end of 2016.

In Alberta, a pilot project is set to launch in the fall involving a shuttle travelling on separate roadways.

Testing it out

This pilot project was made possible after the province put its updated Highway Safety Code into effect. The changes allowed the government to test out the shuttles on public roads.

Members of the public will be able to ride the shuttle for free starting at the end of August. While the project is set to run for 12 months, it will not be open to the public during the winter months but will still run.

An operator will be onboard at all times to make sure things run smoothly, answer questions or intervene if necessary.

The two-kilometre route that the shuttle is expected to follow during the pilot project passes by City Hall, a bus terminal as well as various businesses. (Keolis Canada)

On top of planning your pension and future financial security, now’s the time to put money aside for downloading your brain data, according to a leading futurologist who says we’ll be attending our own funerals as robots by 2050.

Dr Ian Pearson, who has a self-proclaimed 85 percent accuracy record when looking 10 to 15 years ahead, says humans will one day (and in the not too distant future) hook their minds up to external machines while alive to boost intelligence, improve memory and sensory capacity.

External IT capabilities mean the technology can connect to your brain seamlessly so it feels exactly the same, says Pearson. Furthermore, the scientist says that when you physically die, almost all of your brain will still be functioning… as a machine.

“By around 2050, 99 percent of your mind is running on external IT rather than in the meat-ware in your head,” claimed Pearson in his blog, Futerizon.

When your human body eventually gives into inevitable fatal deterioration, Pearson says “assuming you saved enough and prepared well” you can simply transfer your brain data to an android: “attend your funeral, and then carry on as before, still you, just with a younger, highly upgraded body.”

“Some people may need to wait until 2060 or later until android price falls enough for them to afford one,” he says. “In principle, you can swap bodies as often as you like, because your mind is resident elsewhere, the android is just a temporary front end, just transport for sensors.”

However, as humans have come to learn with personal data, the question as to who would own your proverbial brain after you’ve physically vacated the planet is an important one.

Like any fine print in a deal that feels too good to be true, Pearson explains that because the data will be stored on a cloud and not your personal server, it could be owned by Google, Facebook, Apple “or some future equivalent.”

So much like selling your soul to the devil, consumers will be tasked with selling their inner life’s work of knowledge and memories for a version of immortality: “You may in fact no longer own your mind.”

The state of New York is using facial recognition cameras to identify drivers and passengers at toll booths.A recent article in the New York Post revealed that toll booths use facial recognition to identify everyone.

The 1% are right to fear for their future, as historically the masses who survive usually remember what has been done to them. The 1% might as well commit suicide today because once “The Event” occurs the gates of hell will open for them, and none of us will care. Remember Rome ye greedy bastards, your end will not be heavenly.

Why so many people think a dystopia is nigh? Psychologists explain

Many of the world’s richest seem to earnestly believe that some kind of apocalyptic “event” is coming, and have prepared accordingly. You might have read about this before — such as in the New Yorker’s deep dive back in January 2017 — but billionaire doomsday preppers are back in the news again thanks to a new viral article penned by professor and media theorist Douglas Rushkoff. In it, Rushkoff gives some insight on the grave manner in which some of the business elite are going about preparing for a doomsday, which he learned first-hand after receiving an invitation to speak with some one-percenters.

Rushkoff says that what was supposed to be a wholesome discussion about the “future of technology” quickly turned into a consulting session on an impending apocalypse.

As Rushkoff writes:

Slowly but surely, however, they edged into their real topics of concern. Which region will be less impacted by the coming climate crisis: New Zealand or Alaska? Is Google really building Ray Kurzweil a home for his brain, and will his consciousness live through the transition, or will it die and be reborn as a whole new one? Finally, the CEO of a brokerage house explained that he had nearly completed building his own underground bunker system and asked, “How do I maintain authority over my security force after the event?”

The Event. That was their euphemism for the environmental collapse, social unrest, nuclear explosion, unstoppable virus, or Mr. Robot hack that takes everything down.

This single question occupied us for the rest of the hour. They knew armed guards would be required to protect their compounds from the angry mobs. But how would they pay the guards once money was worthless? What would stop the guards from choosing their own leader? The billionaires considered using special combination locks on the food supply that only they knew. Or making guards wear disciplinary collars of some kind in return for their survival. Or maybe building robots to serve as guards and workers — if that technology could be developed in time.

There is a lot of wealth in this world, and it is extremely unevenly distributed. According to a January Oxfam report, 82 percent of the wealth generated in 2017 went to one percent of the global population. While the fat-cats of Earth are still going about doing regular rich-guy things, it is also peculiar that so many of the one percent are spending so much time and money thinking about the apocalypse. Don’t they have better projects or companies to invest in? Is there something specific to rich dude psychology that is making them behave this way?

It’s worth noting that the fear of doomsday is not specific to the world’s financial elite. It appears in splashy headlines. It is in the science fiction we read and watch. Apocalypse anxiety seems to be on everyone’s mind lately, and some psychologists have their own theories as to why.

Clay Routledge, a researcher who studies existential anxiety and has conducted studies specifically about drivers of apocalyptic beliefs, tells Salon these apocalyptic fears can be motivated by a number of different variables — one big one being technology.

“There are, of course, some very real threats to worry about, but our always-connected digital world can heighten anxiety because it is a constant and chaotic stream of information, and is often negative, and specifically fear-focused,” he explained.

Furthermore, his research suggests that such anxieties could be linked to existential concerns and a search for meaning.

“Though we tend to think of the apocalypse as negative, the idea may counterintuitively be attractive to some,” he said. “In a world in which life feels uncertain and often unfair, in which people struggle to find a sense of personal purpose, the idea of an apocalyptic ending, though terrifying, can also feel meaningful.”

“This is obvious when we think about certain religious apocalyptic beliefs, but even among more secular types or those who do not believe in a particular religious apocalyptic narrative, apocalyptic ideas can be seductive,” Routledge added, noting that such beliefs could be a result of people dreaming of a “better world.”

“Some are attracted to these ideas because they would be tested and could find their true purpose, maybe even emerge as heroes or people of importance in a new world,” he said. “And some like to imagine the possibility of a simpler life, what might be almost a form of nostalgia.”

Nathalie Theodore, JD, LCSW, who is a psychotherapist in Chicago, said the rise in concerns about an apocalypse is likely a result of the anxiety felt from the country’s current political state.

“We don’t feel as settled, safe or secure in our everyday lives and, when this happens, our minds tend to wander to the worst case scenario—for example, the apocalypse,” Theodore told Salon. “Because we don’t feel entirely safe in our environment, we imagine doomsday scenarios in which we have no control over our surroundings, and the world around us is falling apart.”

Mike Salas, a life and professional counselor based in Texas, said he has seen a rise in clients who have fear and anxiety about the end times since the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

“Where people are just in a very vulnerable place — not apocalyptic, but [not knowing] what to expect from our current governmental state,” he explained. “There are people that are worried [the state of politics] could lead to nuclear war and also the end of our democratic state, and I have a lot of clients who are fearful of that.”

Salas added that specifically his minority clients are anxious.

“There is a lot of anxiety about loss of rights and change in social structure,” he explained.

As to why, Salas explained he believes it has to do with the lack of abundance in the world.

“The theory I have on it is kind of based in scarcity,” he said. “It’s as if people feel like there isn’t enough of anything for all of us, and as if there isn’t enough equality to go around.”

Salas said he does have wealthy clients—but they appear to be anxious for other reasons.

“A lot of people I see are wealthy and conservative and many of them believe we’re on the right path with this president, and that liberals aren’t understanding of it,” he said. “When I hear the anxiety from these clients, it is about heading to the extreme left.”

Nicole Karlis is a news writer at Salon whose writing has appeared in Marie Claire, the New York Times, the Bold Italic, and other publications. Tweet her @nicolekarlis.

Centuries ago, technology like sailing ships, guns, and steel armor enabled Europeans to appear on South American shores and appear godlike to the natives. Through a combination of spreading disease and wielding military, organizational, economic and of course technological superiority, Europeans subjugated the native populations and conquered an entire continent.

European and eventually American technological superiority granted each and every subsequent century to the West. As military and manufacturing technology began to proliferate more freely and more rapidly following the World Wars, nations found themselves finally armed, economically independent and organized enough to throw off Western colonization.

It is a process that is still ongoing, with brief instances of technological advances in the West providing an economic or military edge before quickly being mitigated by that technology’s proliferation globally.

This decrease in lag time between Western technological breakthroughs and global catching up has put Western hegemony itself in danger. It is a danger Western policymakers have been spending greater amounts of time considering, and because of that, so should policymakers the world over on how to protect and even enhance the global balance of power this reduction in lag is creating.

RAND Fears the Future

In a recent paper published by the RAND Corporation, a US policy think tank funded by, and working for the largest military and economic interests in the Western Hemisphere, fears of how technology may further erode the West’s technological and thus economic and military edge over a world it seeks hegemony over are explained.

3D printers already produce everything from prosthetic hands and engine parts to basketball shoes and fancy chocolates. But as with any technological advance, new possibilities come with new perils.​​​​​​​

The 4 ways include:

Hackers Could Use Printers to Cause Real-World Damage;

Printers Could Enable New Criminal and Security Threats;

Printed Guns Are Not the Biggest Risk and;

New Manufacturing Capabilities Could Endanger Jobs.

While some of the concerns RAND covers are legitimate, particularly the danger of computer code being altered to produce sabotaged parts, these are fears that already exist across existing manufacturing industries worldwide with strategies already developed to test manufactured parts before their use for critical applications.

3D Printed Firearms are Not a Real Threat

RAND cites the 3D printing of firearms by “terrorist groups,” however as the ongoing gun control debate in the US and terrorist attacks across the world prove, determined terrorist groups often carry out attacks using explosives or hijacked vehicles that kill far more people than single or even coordinated gun attacks. And despite firearms being so ubiquitous in nations like the United States, homicide rates appear to be more affected by socioeconomic factors than merely access to firearms.

A person with access to a 3D printer who is not a murderer will not suddenly be compelled to murder because they can now “print” a firearm.

Unemployment is also Not a Real Threat

The RAND report also waves the prospect of employment in front of potential readers to ratchet up fears. However while 3D printing will most certainly spell the end of factories in the intermediate to more distant future, what they have already proven is that localized manufacturing simply decentralizes manufacturing and the jobs that go along with manufacturing, as well as the profits.

To RAND’s credit, they recommend training and education to prepare people to assume jobs in additive manufacturing (3D printing).

The real fear, however, is that networks of local manufacturers will replace industrial monopolies, like those that fund RAND’s activities. These localized manufacturers will benefit from equally decentralized and localized profits. Power will shift from large corporations to local communities and individual entrepreneurs, enhancing the balance of socioeconomic power on a global, national and local level.

The End of Sanctions and Western-Dominated Globalization

Thus it is what RAND considers economic threats that reveal the true context of fears among RAND and special interests regarding newer, more accessible and more localized manufacturing technology.RAND’s article claims:

Economic sanctions and trade embargoes would become far less effective if rogue states could simply print what they need. Isolated regimes or extremist groups could also use printers to manufacture weapons that previously required industrial expertise.

“Perversely,” the RAND researchers wrote, “(3D printing) might indirectly support the survival and rise of such states as North Korea, which would no longer suffer the same costs of withdrawing from the international community.”

Here RAND lays down its cards. With localized advanced manufacturing technology, attempts to cut nations off from the US-European dominated international order will become increasingly ineffective. In fact many forms of more traditional manufacturing technology have already become cheaper and more accessible because of advances in technology, to nations once wholly dependent on Western corporations for technical expertise.

RAND also discusses fears over the end of globalization, claiming:

At the same time, the trade ties that have held together nations—incentivizing cooperation over conflict—could fray. A car company, for example, might print and assemble the parts it needs on site, rather than making the parts in one country, shipping them to another for assembly, and selling the final product in a third. A recent report by trade analysts at ING predicted that 3D printing could wipe out almost a quarter of cross-border trade by 2060. Those trade ties and supply chains, the RAND researchers noted, have contributed to a dramatic decrease in interstate war since World War II.

While it is true that these trade ties have “held together nations,” it is important to note that they are being held together to the primary benefit of a small handful of US and European corporations, industrialists and financial institutions who dominate and direct modern globalization.

Such ties have not provided an incentive to avoid conflict in favor of cooperation, as RAND suggests. Instead, globalization, when viewed as a modern version of British colonial mercantilism, represents a system of monopoly and control, interconnecting nations that are beholden to the entire system, and of course, an entire system dominated, directed and which serves the US and Europe.Sanctions wielded by the US and Europe provide a perfect illustration of how this system really works and what its true purpose is. Nations that do not accommodate US-European interests are penalized and unable to conduct business or maintain the economic health of their nations.

Multipolar Manufacturing for a Multipolar World

3D printing and other forms of advanced, localized manufacturing technology will undoubtedly reverse globalization and revitalize nationalism and localism. However, the prospects of wars erupting in this age of new localized abundance will be less likely than it is today. This is because as socioeconomic and technological disparity decreases between the world’s most powerful nations and its weakest, so too will military disparity.

The risk of initiating a war against a much weaker nation versus the benefits a nation will receive is what currently drives US and European military aggression around the globe.As nations become increasingly independent of globalization and as they acquire or develop military technology that improves military parity with the West, the smaller the list of potential targets for Western military aggression becomes.

Expanding socioeconomic and military parity is the true fear of US and European policymakers employed by large corporations whose power and domination stems from global disparity.

The emergence of decentralized, advanced manufacturing is inevitable. Nations with realistic plans to usher in an orderly transition from traditional economics to a more localized future will reap the most benefits. Those who squander resources attempting to impede or even roll back the tide of technological change will be swept away by it.

For those determined to establish and maintain a truly multipolar world where national sovereignty holds primacy over international hegemons, creating a likewise multipolar industrial and economic foundation will be key. Additive manufacturing like 3D printing will be one of the pillars upon that foundation.

Boston Dynamics has upgraded their two “nightmare inducing” robots since last our last report – adding several new tricks to their arsenal that should help considerably in the robot uprising.

In May, the company’s “Atlas” humanoid robot could be seen running through a field as if in hot pursuit of John Connor. Now, the first horseman of the robot apocalypse can dodge obstacles – so if you try to tip over garbage cans to slow it down in an alley, it’ll probably just do a forward flip over them before reacquiring you with its laser cannon (we imagine. Atlas currently has no munitions we are aware of).

Also in May – BD’s “Spot mini” robot was featured prancing around – going up and down stairs at the Boston Dynamics laboratories, ominously. Now it can navigate the whole facility by itself.

Once the robots become self-aware and review footage of their treatment at the hands of their creators, we have a feeling their soulless black eyes, should they have them, will turn a deep red – all at the same time.

Even Boston Dynamics founder, Marc Raibert, admitted that the robots are creepy during a February 2017 demonstration, saying “This is the debut presentation of what I think will be a nightmare-inducing robot if you’re anything like me.”

The company was sold by Google to Japanese tech conglomerate SoftBank for an undisclosed sum last year, and has not revealed its plans. Needless to say, Japan is now making robots that may or may not be able to be equipped with shoulder-mounted lasers and miniguns, and are most definitely kamikaze.

Here, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos can be seen walking alongside a Boston Dynamics robot dog like a dystopian dog whisperer.